Introduction

The Introduction contextualizes the topic of Soviet residential childcare in the history of the Soviet Union as well as the history of residential childcare. It shows that residential childcare institutions played a crucial part in rebuilding the socialist system after Stalinism in terms of social welfare policies as well as in terms of policing deviance. The Introduction briefly outlines the setup of the Soviet residential childcare system and the research conducted so far in this area. It also flags up the useful implications of Foucault’s, Goffman’s, and Lutz Raphael’s theoretical work for analysing residential childcare institutions; shows the potential which these theories open for comparison with similar institutions in other contexts; and gives an overview of the source material used in this research. Finally, it outlines the arguments and chapters of this work.